


A Cold Flame

by PrinceCat



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Angst, Gen, M/M, Magic, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-30
Updated: 2016-09-30
Packaged: 2018-08-18 17:03:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8169322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinceCat/pseuds/PrinceCat
Summary: Tooru and Hajime were once both human boys. Friends. But since the curse, since Tooru became king, they have been growing apart. Now the tension between them has reached a breaking point, and a confrontation occurs. [Final HQ Quest AU // iwaoi - going their separate ways]





	

For HQ Magic Fest!

Based off a scene from a longer outline on tumblr (see it [here](http://aobajohsai-headcanons.tumblr.com/post/146421153126/final-haikyuu-quest-iwaoi-headcanons)). I suggest checking it out if the ending of this is too sad for you and you need cheering up, because they get reunited with a happy end in the longer outline! It's just this part that has a sad end! Either way, please enjoy!

 

* * *

 

"It's called spirit fire for a reason Tooru. You have to- Tooru? Hello...?"

Tooru turns away from the window to face the other demon in the throne room. Tetsurou is standing with a hand on his hip, an unimpressed look on his face. In his other hand, a deep reddish-purple ball of flame burns, suspended above the skin of his palm.

With a dismissive flick of the same hand, Tetsurou banishes the flame, looking away from Tooru with disinterest. "I suppose if you're not interested-"

"No!" Tooru interrupts, taking a step towards Tetsurou. "I am, of course I am. I'm just distracted today, I don't know what's wrong with me. I feel like something terrible is going to happen."

"Maybe it will," Tetsurou says, smirking, the lids of his eyes lowering even further, making him look as sinister as ever. "Your powers of premonition must be improving. Honestly, I don't know what that witch was thinking. Turning you into a demon was hardly much of a curse." He looks away from Tooru, and his face falls into a look of introspection, almost... regret. "Humans are weak."

Tooru frowns along with Tetsurou, all this talk of humans, and the curse, only reminding him of his lost humanity, and Hajime. He catches himself before he can begin gazing balefully out the window again. When he was a young prince, a boy, the city seemed a gleaming temptation that he could only glimpse out the palace windows. And it had been, shining and prosperous. Now, it entire city is no better than its worst slums. Sometimes Tooru finds it difficult to see his destruction of the city as a good thing.

But when he remembers his disbandment of the city guard just the other day, Tooru feels a swell of vindictive pleasure and pride, and a smile befitting of a demon crosses his face. Without the threat of the city guard deposing him, Tooru's rule is absolute, his magic too strong now to be overcome by any rabble of commoners. And beyond that, Hajime will now have nothing to choose over Tooru, nothing to favour over him. He cannot commit himself to the city, to his duty as Captain of the Guards, both have been destroyed. There is nothing left for Hajime. Nowhere to turn but to Tooru.

"Tooru?"

"Show me the spirit fire again," Tooru says, turning back to Tetsurou, trying to push any distracting thoughts to the back of his mind.

Tetsurou regards him skeptically for a moment, clearly not too happy about being ordered around so much, but complies, opening his palm skyward. The same flame bursts to life above his hand, flickering and dancing like real fire.

"Just concentrate on the idea of it. Think of your spirit, and imagine it manifesting itself in your palm," Tetsurou says, transferring his flame to his other hand casually.

Tooru holds his hands out in front of his belly, and aims a terrible stare down at them. His fingers are straining with effort, and his mind is distracted for a moment by the sharp black nails at the tip of each finger, still so foreign to him.

"You're focusing too much on your hands," Yuu calls from the stairs leading up to the throne's pedestal. He and Ryuu have been lounging there throughout the lesson, but neither have spoken up until then. "You have to relax, and think about the fire. Try closing your eyes!"

"Mistress Kiyoko always says a demon's spirit fire is the most important," Ryuu adds.

"Why?" Tooru asks, dropping his hands. "Isn't it just another form of magic? Why is it more important than anything else I've been learning?"

"Lemme think..." Yuu leans back to gaze up at the ceiling, picking up Ryuu's tail and petting it contemplatively.

"I don't think she meant it's that most important thing to _learn_ ," Ryuu says. "Or something important for fighting..."

"It's about how it looks!" Yuu looks back at Tooru and Tetsurou, golden eyes sparkling with whatever knowledge he thinks he's imparting. "It represents the demon's spirit, yeah? So the way it looks can give you clues about the health of a demon's spirit."

"So what does Tetsurou's say about him?" Tooru asks, not sparing a glance at the demon beside him.

"It's been corrupted," Yuu says solemnly after a moment of silence, his face suddenly drawn and austere, eyes glassy and distant, as if he's giving a prophecy of death, as if someone else is using his mouth to speak to them. "There's something eating away at him, a secret, and it pollutes his spirit."

"I'm right here you know," Tetsurou grumbles, and the tense feeling in Tooru's chest lessens a bit. "Nice to know Lady Kiyoko's been gossiping about me with her underlings."

Tooru stares at Tetsurou's flame, still rolling about above the plam of his hand. Will his spirit be likewise polluted? Will they all be able to tell?

Tooru brings a hand up to his chest with a gasp, feeling another strong wave of trepidation pass over him. "I feel it..." He's barely aware that he spoke aloud at all.

"The fire?" Ryuu asks. Beside him, Yuu sits oddly quiet, but seems to have returned to his regular self.

"No," Tooru replies, clutching his chest, letting his head dip down to look at the marble floor beneath his feet. He feels dizzy, hot and cold at the same time, and his head aches like it did when the horns first started growing from his brow. "Something's coming..."

"Well-" Tetsurou begins, only to be cut off by the sound of one of the doors at the end of the hall opening. It creaks and groans as it swings open.

Hajime storms through the open door, his green eyes blazing with anger. "Tooru!"

"That was a little anticlimactic," Tetsurou quips, before making himself black smoke, and vanishing into it.

Tooru makes it to the first stair of the throne's pedestal by the time Hajime reaches him. Yuu and Ryuu are nowhere to be seen, and Tooru still feels a little dizzy from his earlier episode, his horns aching right at their base. Hajime's entire being radiates such a fury, Tooru can't bring himself to meet his eyes.

"You disbanded the Guard?" Hajime demands, stopping a respectable distance from Tooru, just beyond arm's reach. Somehow his body still remembers Tooru is king, even if his voice and thoughts still treat him as nothing but a childhood friend. "What's _wrong_ with you?"

Although lately, Hajime speaks to him with such anger, Tooru doesn't know how he thinks of him anymore. Hajime's thoughts and actions have been increasingly difficult for Tooru to understand, or interpret.

"I thought you would be happy," Tooru says, finally looking up to meet Hajime's eyes, and smiling joylessly. "Now you have more time to spend with me."

Hajime is speechless at Tooru's words, and stares at him in horror, his mouth falling open. Under his incredulous stare, Tooru can feel his conviction slipping. Finally Hajime looks away from Tooru's face, dropping his head to look at the floor, the clench of his jaw visible through his cheek. Tooru still recognizes enough of Hajime's tells, and knows that he is holding back tears.

"I- I kept having to justify your actions," Hajime says, nearly shouting, his voice raw with emotion, "to the Guard, to any citizens who asked uncomfortable questions! To _myself_! I didn't want to admit that maybe, maybe you're past saving."

Tooru can't get out any reply, a tension beginning to tear at his heart and claw its way up his throat, making him choke on his words.

"You should have stepped down when you were cursed! Having so much power, while you're like this, a demon... it isn't right, the kingdom is in shambles!" Hajime is shouting now, gesturing wildly out the windows towards the city. "I held myself back from saying anything for so long, I was just fooling myself into thinking that as Captain of the Guards I was making any kind of a difference. The Guard was one of the few things still holding the city together, helping people, _protecting_ them! What possible reason could you have for disbanding it?"

"Why is everything always about the city with you? Don't you care about me at _all_?" Tooru asks with a calculated pout.

" _You're_ supposed to care about the city too! You're the king!" Hajime pauses, letting his words sink in. When he speaks again, it's quieter, more personal, and he takes a step towards Tooru. "You're the _king_. ...Tooru, I know this whole situation happened so quickly, you taking the throne, and the curse, but can't you see this isn't right? Not for the city, and not for you. This is changing you into something you're not. Something I don't recognize."

They stand in silence for a moment, before Tooru takes a step down off the throne's pedestal, closing the distance between himself and Hajime. "You're talking like you're planning on leaving me. Hajime?" Tooru asks quietly, the soft sound of his voice almost being swallowed up by the high ceiling of the hall.

Hajime looks away from Tooru's searching gaze guiltily. How could he be planning to leave? Everything Tooru had done had been for them.

This must be a misunderstanding, or just Hajime getting too caught up in his silly ideas of right and wrong. He had been so hurt and angry when he stormed in, but now, he has softened, and Tooru feels his pride swell, confident in Hajime's affections once more.

"Hajime," Tooru says softly, putting his palm gently against Hajime's cheek. He's distracted for a moment at the sight of the sharp nail on his thumb, painted black, and wonders briefly if he could draw blood if he pressed hard enough into the flesh of Hajime's cheek. Hajime leans into Tooru's hand, his eyes showing such a depth of emotion it makes Tooru want to tremble.

"...Tooru?"

"I could give you anything you want, just stay with me..."

And just like that, Hajime closes off, brushing Tooru's hand away from his face roughly, his eyes narrowing, the loving emotion so freely given now hardening into cold anger. "There's only one thing I want Tooru, but I doubt anyone can reach it."

"Why, what is it?" Tooru asks, but he can feel Hajime slipping away from him, the tender moment gone.

"You, but not as you are now. I want the real Tooru back, more than anything," Hajime answers.

This time, Tooru does tremble, almost imperceptibly, but not out of any pleasure, or love. It feels as if Hajime has struck him, and turned his heart to ice. He turns away and ascends the four steps up to the throne, heels clacking on the marble floor and echoing around the empty hall. When he gets to the throne, he turns back to face Hajime, his expression schooled into cold indifference.

"This _is_ the real me," Tooru says, hyperaware of the horns atop his brow, of the tail curling behind him. "If you can't accept that, I suggest you leave."

"I will. Don't look for me in this crumbling kingdom of yours anymore, Tooru. I'll leave your sight entirely."

"You can forsake the kingdom so easily? The kingdom you chose over me?" Tooru calls out as Hajime begins to turn to go. He sits down as nonchalantly as he can, and clutches the arms of the throne desperately, holding himself back from running back to Hajime, into his embrace. Tooru doubts Hajime will even offer one now, after all that they have said.

"If I stay here, I'll be forced to fulfill my oath to protect the city," Hajime replies, his voice dangerously quiet. "I am bound to protect the city, the kingdom, from anything or anyone that does it harm. You are doing more harm than an enemy siege ever could. But still... I _can't_... I can't choose between you and the kingdom. I don't want to be your enemy, Tooru, but you're leaving me no choice. Either I leave, or we become enemies."

"Where will you go?" Tooru asks, feigning a disinterested nonchalance.

Hajime pauses, looking down at the floor beneath Tooru's feet, not meeting his eyes. "Wherever I am needed."

With that, Hajime strides out of the throne room, the soft leather soles of his boots making his steps quiet against the floor, though they are heavy with purpose. The door clangs shut behind him with a finality Tooru doesn't want to accept.

"That went well, I thought," Tetsurou's voice pipes up from amongst the drapery behind the throne. Tooru can't find it in himself to be offended at the eavesdropping, the clamour of the door slamming still echoing in his ears.

"What a funny thing for him to have said," Ryuu says, sprawled across the steps up to the throne with Yuu, as if they had been there the whole time. They probably had been.

"Right?" Yuu nods, twirling his tail around his wrist thoughtfully. "He's obviously needed here the most."

Out of a morbid sort of curiosity, Tooru stretches his hand out before him, a look of grim concentration on his face. Turning his hand so the palm faces skyward, a spark of bluish-green lights up his hand. Soon a flame flickers to life, the same bluish-green of Hajime's eyes, but pale, veins of white streak the colour of the fire, like cataracts in a blind man's eye, or frost leaving tracks of ice on window panes. The other three demons look over to see it, but say nothing to congratulate him. Tooru needs to hear nothing, he already knows without asking that it looks wrong. He feels a chill, like his heart has been turned to ice, and the cold frostbitten flame that flickers before him only serves to make him even more numb.


End file.
